Nir Eyal and spiritual growth

^{I just finished spending one and a half eye-opening days with Nir Eyal. On Tuesday Nir hosted the Habit Summit with a stellar line-up of Silicon Valley rock stars from Facebook, Airbnb, Twitter, Expedia, etc. Nir is an expert in human behavior and recently published Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. In my mind it is a must-read in understanding what causes people to habitually do the things they do. Today, Nir led a workshop for 40 entrepreneurs, each trying to build the next Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. What interested me was the fact that in spite of all we can do in technology, the solutions are not found first in technology but in behavioral science. Nir and his like-minded colleagues like B.J. Fogg have gone a long way in discovering why people do what they do. I am increasingly becoming convinced that there is a science behind building habits that lead to personal, professional and spiritual growth. To follow Nir’s hooked model does not guarantee success in creating a new habit, but no new habit will be formed if we ignore the science behind the model. Nir’s hooked model is based on four actions:}

• ^{·                Trigger: The actuator of a behavior—an invitation to do something. Triggers can be either external or internal}
• ^{·                Action: What simple action if done consistently will lead two a habit}
• ^{·                Variable reward: Interestingly actions will be performed more when the rewards are variable than consistently similar. Rewards come from three sources—the rewards of the tribe (feeling accepted, important or included) the rewards of the hunt (“I found something I wanted”), and the rewards of the self—mastery of the world around us}
• ^{·                Investment: Asking people to do a little “work” creates a deeper investment in the process and increases the likelihood of responding to the next trigger.}

^{Listening to Nir I couldn’t help but think how closely Nir’s model mirrored what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Read the following verse and look for the trigger, the action, the variable reward and the investment. “He who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). How about this one: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7). Could anxiety be the trigger to prayer? What if a negative emotion could really trigger a positive habit? If the reward was the “peace of God” would that reinforce my habit of going to God in prayer (instead of a more negative stress releaser)? I think it is safe to say that Nir did not invent the Hooked Model but he did codify what makes us humans tick and form the habits we do. Thank-you Nir Eyal.}